


a matter of science

by kristyn



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-12-25 09:35:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12033177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kristyn/pseuds/kristyn
Summary: This is basically where I'm gonna dump all my short Blupjeans pieces, hope you enjoy!





	1. banana nut muffin

Barry rubbed his eyes in the dim glow of the library’s overhead lamp and checked his watch. Nearly seven AM. Wow, he’d really worked all night, hadn’t he? He sure had. He adjusted his reading glasses and squinted back down at his documents. He was so _close._ With this new technology he’d devised, he could predict the Light’s movement days before it landed. Of course, it wouldn’t help this time around, but with enough luck next year, he could fully utilize it. But he was missing just one component…

A pair of elbows landed on the table, startling him out of his reverie. He looked up across the table into the smiling face of Lup. He smiled back.

It had been just one cycle since their duet on the voidfish planet. They had hesitantly decided to begin a sort of courtship, if one wanted to be super old-fashioned about it. Simply put, they were kind of dating now. He loved her immensely, but it was extremely difficult for him to articulate this. A few times he had tried, and instantly became red-faced before changing the topic. But it was okay, he constantly reassured himself. He had time. _They_ had time. No need to rush.

Still, as she made herself known to him in his little study world, his heart surged in anxiety, as it was wont to do.

“Good morning,” he said, leaning his hand up to tuck a lock of her wispy brown hair behind her pointed ear.

“That’s my line,” she said, snagging his hand and quickly pecking it. “You really worked all night, then, didn’t you?” she asked, casting her gaze around his work station. He had boxed himself in, practically, books and notebooks stacked on either side of him.

“Yeah. Still trying to perfect the trajectory. I’m missing something.”

She flipped his notebook around, glancing at his tiny, nearly indecipherable scribbles. “Accounted for lack of oceans, right?”

“Right.”

She turned it back around.”I’ll look at it more closely with you later. In the meantime, I got something for you.” She smiled nervously and ducked her hand into her red cloak.

Barry raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Tell me it’s a new pair of reading glasses.”

“I keep telling you, it’s not your glasses, it’s your shit lighting and tiny handwriting. And no, it’s not. Here.” She pulled out something wrapped in foil. “Banana nut. Your favorite.”

He gasped softly. “Oh, wow, I love you.”

They both froze. His face rose about a hundred degrees in temperature.

“I-I--,” he stammered.

A shit-eating grin split across Lup’s face. “You total nerd.”

“That’s - accurate,” he mumbled. He began unwrapping the muffin while Lup looked on, absolutely embarrassed while she looked absolutely tickled. He was starting to desire jumping off the Starblaster and skipping the rest of this year. Especially because she… wasn’t saying anything else.

He cleared his throat awkwardly. “Not… quite how I imagined it to come out, but. It’s true just the same.” He focused intently on the foil, finally ripping it free of the baked good therein.

He stared at it.

Burned into the top with fire magic were three words.

‘I Love You.’

“Oh. My god,” Barry said, his face getting even hotter somehow.

Lup giggled. “Well, this kind of fucked up in the best possible way.”

Barry laughed. “And _I’m_ the nerd?”

Lup ran around the table as Barry stood up. She threw herself on him and they kissed as the sun finished rising.


	2. mushrooms

When Barry woke up on the Starblaster that morning, it was just after sunrise. Another day, another data entry notebook. He got into his sweater and pair of slippers, not bothering to fix his hair. He put on his glasses and headed for the research room.

The research room was technically the communal library, but he and Lup were practically the only ones to ever use it. Lucretia occasionally came in to organize her journals, but ultimately she stayed out of their hair. It was an unspoken agreement that the room belonged to Lup and him.

He shuffled along the carpeted hall and finally came upon the library door. He entered, flicking on a gas light to his left.  He gazed around at the relatively small space. The room consisted of floor to ceiling wooden bookshelves, stretching to the back of the room about twenty feet back. The room continued to his right, where more shelves stood, as well as reading chairs and tables that were largely untouched in the twenty or so years they had spent so far on the ship.

Behind the shelves to his right was where Lup and he had left off yesterday. There was a specific vein of vegetation on this world that was immensely poisonous and caused high fever and rash that lead to death, according to the locals. Their goal for the past few days had been to isolate the gene for the purposes of a vaccine. They had been close to a breakthrough last night, but one almost-mishap lead to the two of them deciding to fuckin’ cool it for now. They had been at it all day and a rest had been in order, so the two of them had taken a break to go to bed.

Or so he thought. Presently, he noticed a line of gas lamps that were very much on. He followed their trail, padding along the magenta carpet behind the bookshelves to find the stack of books and notes where he’d left them on the study table. Only next to the books, her head resting on her folded arms, was a familiar figure.

He smiled, his heart flipping in his chest. She was so beautiful, even when passed out cold and drooling.

He sat opposite her in the spot he’d been in yesterday, refreshing himself on his notes. And so he sat, taking notes and comparing data for nearly an hour, occasionally stealing a glance at Lup, before she finally stirred.

She lifted her head. “Wh…”

He glanced up. Smirked. “Morning.”

Her hair stuck up in ten different directions. She tried to flatten it against her head. “And how long have you been there just fucking taking notes and not waking me up?” she said sternly. But there was a hint of a smile of her face.

“Not too long. Couldn’t wake you. You looked too peaceful.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right. You’re just trying to butter me up so I help you collect mushroom samples.”

“So that’s still a no, then?”

“That’s a hell no, sir, not after last time.”

She gathered up her hair and slapped it quickly into a messy bun that drooped to the right side of her head. He tried very hard to pretend that didn’t affect him. Instead he focused very hard on a diagram of a sort of Venus fly trap, ignoring the flips his heart made in his chest.

-

She regarded his deep concentration, unable to look away. In a lot of ways, he was mesmerizing like that. Every day she longed to know him just a little bit more. It had been so long together with him, and still she shied away from his closeness. The contradictory behavior of her mind and actions was starting to annoy her. She wished she would just be straightforward like a sensible fucking person. But every time she began to consider getting closer, her heart beat faster like she was in danger. Figures.

Suddenly, he looked up from his notes. They locked eyes. Her face bloomed in embarrassment. But she didn’t look away.

“You know,” he said, looking down again at his book. His ears were turning pink. “We don’t have to be stuck in here all day like we were yesterday. We can go out.”

“Hey, I said no mushrooms. Just make Merle do it.”

“No, I mean ‘out’ out,” he mumbled, still looking down.

“What?” she said, leaning forward, one hand cupped around her pointed ear.

“Like… Out. There’s supposedly a bit of a night life down there. Taako said there was a good sushi place.”

“Oh,” Lup said. “That’s cool. He didn’t tell me that.”

“So maybe we could… go together. Like, you and me,” said Barry. They met eyes again. “Like, if you want a break from this, is what I’m saying. That we can go take a break. Together.”

Lup slowly smiled. “Sounds good, nerd lord.”

He broke into a rare toothy grin that nearly made Lup’s heart burst.


End file.
